


The Deciding Factor

by Krasimer



Category: Hellboy - All Media Types
Genre: But what if he was, Gen, John Myers isn't in the comics, John survived, Mentions of Violence, Old Writing, Past Violence, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-23
Updated: 2017-08-23
Packaged: 2018-12-18 20:45:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11882490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krasimer/pseuds/Krasimer
Summary: John Myers isn't in the comics so I put some thought into what might happen if he were introduced in them.(Originally written in 2012.)





	The Deciding Factor

They'd been clearing out a house after an assignment. Hellboy had made some scathing sarcastic remark about the blood and corpses, Liz had thumped him soundly over the head (threats of fire did nothing to him, fireproof factor and all that.), and Abe had been walking in front, ignoring them and holding a hand out as he went.

He'd stopped suddenly, the demonic feeding house itself seeming to watch him as he turned towards a closet door that had been hastily shut and apparently locked from the inside.

Which, hopefully, meant that whoever was in there was still alive.

"There is a living presence," Abe confirmed at Liz's questioning eyes. "Scared, tired, and alone."

Liz nodded, walking over to the door and resting a hand on the knob. With an experimental turn, she grimaced as she proved that it was locked. "Red, need you over here."

Hellboy raised an eyebrow at her. "What, you can't just burn the door open?"

"Don't make me burn you, mister...Get your big red butt over here and open this damn door!" She hissed at him, glaring.

Huffing, he stomped over and gave the doorknob a good hard crank, the lock breaking as he did so, even using his flesh hand. Pulling, he opened the door the rest of the way, revealing a small dark closet, barely big enough for a human, let alone him.

Stepping back, he turned towards Liz. "Happy now?"

Liz stepped forward again, kneeling and turning on her flashlight, the beam illuminating a pair of pale skinned bare feet. One of them shifted out of the light as she watched, everything quiet in the darkened gloom of the house.

Her flashlight was the only source of light in the room, besides a dirty and covered-over window on the far wall. Breathing in deeply, she held out a hand, calling up a small flame, big enough to show them some more of the room, but still able to be managed by one arm. It showed them a male humanoid, curled around his own knees.

He had dark brown hair, pale skin with a thick layer of dirt and blood caked on in some spots. His eyes, closed, had dark circles underneath them as if he had stayed awake as long as possible before succumbing to sleep. He was thin, the sort of thin someone only gets after a couple of weeks without a steady source of food, but that could be fixed. He was, all in all, fragile looking and small.

Hellboy looked over her shoulder, trying to get a good look at the male before he was shoved back by Liz. "Demon feeding house, dumbass...He sees you, there's no telling how he reacts. Catatonic fear and screaming are both equally probable and I don't want to deal with that right now."

Hellboy scowled, reluctantly moving back.

Liz used her non-flaming hand to reach forward and gently shake the man’s shoulder. "Hey...You awake?"

He whimpered in his sleep, eyes scrunching and brow furrowing.

She shook his shoulder again, hazy light blue eyes opening slowly to look at her, wincing back shut when the light hit them. "You alright?"

He shook his head, trying to clear it and then seemed to find his voice. "I...I think so..." Suddenly he stiffened. "They're not still here, are they? They took me from school, they...I..."

She shook her head. "No one's here but me and two friends of mine...Abe and Hellboy. They work with me, and they're a little bit-"

Surprisingly he looked at her, shocked. "Hellboy?" he scoffed. "May as well go out delusional as sane...As in the comic?"

Liz snorted. "Comics glorify his lazy ass a bit."

"HEY!" came the affronted shout from the aforementioned demon. "I'm not that lazy! I'm here right now, ain't I?"

The young man smiled, looking like he wasn't used to using those muscles in that order.

Liz rolled her eyes and turned back to the other human. "What's your name?"

"I'm John...” he took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down a little. “John Myers."

~

John, as it turned out, only had his uncle left.

The man lived in some small town halfway across the world, but when he was told that his nephew had been found alive and well, he caught the next flight down to New York. He had wanted to bring John home as soon as possible, seeing as the young man was the only link he had to his sister anymore.

So John was given clothes, a good solid meal, and then debriefed.

Hellboy watched through to two-way mirror into the room they were talking to John in, and for a moment, he didn't talk.

"Liz, what the Hell are they doing here?"

She looked at them, then at him. "They're checking to make sure that he didn't bring any viruses with him from the demon food place, as well as checking to make sure that he didn't bring back any sort of incubating thing inside his chest." she smiled at him "Unless you want to get something living inside your chest again. Remember Sweden?"

He scowled, then pushed lightly at her shoulder. "Yes, I remember Sweden. You don't need to remember, and you don't need to bring it up."

In the other room, John smiled wearily when another agent came into the room and spoke quietly. They motioned for him and he followed.

Hellboy watched for as long as it took them to leave the room, his head tilted as John rubbed at his shoulder. Neither he nor Liz spoke until the door swung shut slowly behind the group of people.

"He had been there for weeks. His uncle had launched several searches for him, all focusing on the city they live in." Liz rubbed at the bracelets on her wrists, then sighed. "Red, he survived a demon feeding house for nearly two months."

He nodded, then turned to look at her. "I'm going to guess that you don't want me anywhere near him?"

"The directors don't. He wants to talk to you, possibly get an autograph." she gave a weak laugh, falling into silence as they went through the door, him letting her go first. "I think that the only reason he didn't freak out when he saw you was because of the comics. He's a longtime fan, and when they asked him about that, he actually smiled."

"How old is he?" Hellboy frowned and looked down at her, pressing the button for the elevator.

Liz didn't answer, choosing instead to fiddle with the bracelets on her wrist again.

"Liz-"

"He's nineteen."

Hellboy choked, nearly swallowing his own tongue.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone likes this, please tell me. 
> 
> I'm literally going through all my old writing and seeing what I still like enough to post to this site.


End file.
